Apl of the Philippines' eye
The devastation Ondoy wreaked has brought out the true selflessness of many Filipinos. One Filipino who’s constantly demonstrated his selflessness and national pride even before the typhoon hit, though, is Apl.de.Ap of the Black Eyed Peas. Two years ago, Apl (which stands for his real name, Allan Pineda Lindo) approached Secretary Ace Durano of the Department of Tourism filled with a “burning desire to do something for the Philippines,” according to Durano, and the result is “Take Me to the Philippines,” a tourism campaign that the DOT and MTV Asia collaborated on to attract MTV’s global youth market.
Apl, a Fil-Am who migrated to California when he was 14, wrote a new hip-hop single called Take U to the Philippines, which MTV will roll out globally today, Oct. 1. The Fil-Am superstar, who makes it a point to write at least one Tagalog song for every Black Eyed Peas album, used his own money and resources to produce the video for the single, which was shot in Boracay by Andrew Lo, creative director of MTV Asia. In the video Apl performs in front of stylized backdrops of top tourism destinations like Boracay, the Chocolate Hills and Mayon volcano, urging MTV viewers to “jump on a plane… I could take you to where I come from, right, where the water’s so warm and the sun’s bright.” He gives a shout-out to his beloved hometown, Pampanga, as well as hotspots like Palawan, Baguio and Cebu. The DOT’s collaboration with Apl is in perfect synchronicity with chart-topping sales of two singles from the Black Eyed Peas’ latest album “The E.N.D.” which have stayed on Billboard charts for 20 consecutive weeks at No. 1, even surpassing the Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson, while their latest videos are receiving heavy rotation on MTV.
Apl was in Singapore recently as part of a global tour with the Peas; while there he shot a TV ad for the DOT and visited the VIP Supper Club, where Sec. Durano was in attendance; Apl spun some records, Durano spun his latest efforts to promote Philippine tourism, and, while sharing their prayers and concerns for Filipinos back home, everybody did their part to put the Philippines on the global map for something besides natural disasters and calamities.
